Lesson 9: The box model

The box model in CSS describes the boxes which are being generated for HTML-elements. The box model also contains detailed options regarding adjusting margin, border, padding and content for each element. The diagram below shows how the box model is constructed:

The box model in CSS

The illustration above might seem pretty theoretical to look at, so let's try to use the model in an actual case with a headline and some text. The HTML for our example is (from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights):

<h1>Article 1:</h1>
<p>All human beings are born free
and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience
and should act towards one another in a
spirit of brotherhood</p>

By adding some color and font-information the example could be presented as follows:

The example contains two elements: <h1> and <p>. The box model for the two elements can be illustrated as follows:

Even though it may look a bit complicated, the illustration shows how each HTML-element is surrounded by boxes. Boxes which we can adjust using CSS.

The properties which regulate the different boxes are: padding, margin and border. The next two lessons deal with exactly these three properties: